Why Burger King Will Never Beat McDonald’s

As a former McDonald’s marketing guy, I pay attention to references of the so-called “burger wars” – as some people still call them – but please they’ve been over for years!

I ask you, “Is it really a war when the number one kid on the block – McDonald’s – continues to open up it’s marketing can of “whoop-ass” on just about any retailer that serves food and/or beverages and on average does it better, faster and cheaper than anyone else?”

The answer is, “No!”

What went wrong at Burger King, by Dan Mitchell in the September 3rd issue of Fortune caught by eye and he’s spot on in so many areas as to what’s wrong at BK.

However, I’d argue (and I’m proud to say without reservation) that the main reason Burger King will never beat McDonald’s, is that “Mia McFamlia” still walks founder Ray Kroc’s talk when he famously said, “We take the hamburger business more seriously than anyone else!”

McDonald’s personnel, owner/operators and partners have always worked together and have been in it to win it from day one. Sure, they got a little of track a few years back – who doesn’t after being so incredibly successful for so long – but Burger King has been off track for over 30 years!

McDonald’s recognized awhile back with its “Plan to Win” initiative that to quote Pogo, “We have met the enemy and they is us!” So they got back to work and focused more on themselves and satisfying their guests changing needs. Bravo.

OK, so McDonald’s takes the burger biz more seriously than BK and others. You get it you say, but I know you want more substance. OK…here’s 5 more reasons why Burger King will never beat McDonald’s.

All of McDonald’s staffers, owner/operators and partners (or at least 99% of all of them) own stock in the brand and know that if the brand improves so does their financial situation. All of BK’s corporate behemoth owners (before and now) own other things. McDonald’s is (practically) all McDonald’s.

McDonald’s is just plain better – they’re more innovative, financially astute and they execute better.

BK is way behind in the pack. They haven’t even been number two for a long time. And if you think the view never changes if you’re not the lead dog well…

P.S.: Here’s one more case in point about the lack of commitment by BK to challenge McDonald’s. About 15 years ago, I was part of a team organized to help put Burger King out of business in downtown Pittsburgh. The BK franchisee was selling and we simply turned the heat up and got a great franchisee to take over some of our corporate restaurants. BK closed up all of their restaurants then and have never reopened in town to date. I know Pittsburgh isn’t the Big Apple or LA, but come on!

hahaha! Just because McDonald’s has more locations (**currently) than any fast food place does not mean it’s food or more specifically it’s burgers are any better. It’s burgers are pure garbage. They taste like a mix of old Chinese newspapers, apple cores, and soy, which isn’t too far from the truth. McDonald’s burgers have a huge amount of soy in them (Genetically Modified Soy btw) as well as hundreds of different cattle in each burger. They use the cheapest ingredients possible that’s why they are able to undercut all the other low-cost guys like Wendy’s and BK, which is why they aren’t doing as well because when you buy garbage – why do you care if the wrapper is a different color or not? You just go to the fast food place that has the most/strongest marketing presence and don’t think any more about it. McDonald’s has 40 years of marketing built up in everyone’s brains. That’s why they beat out all the mass market low-ball guys.

However, if you want something that tastes good and is made from quality ingredients – you don’t go to McDonald’s, which is what more people are starting to demand. I wouldn’t be surprised in the near future if McDonald’s starts to falter from over-expansion and irreparable degradation of the quality of their food and ingredients. McDonald’s does anything to cut costs on their food including vastly lowering the quality all to save half a cent on each burger so that across they chain they save millions and can put that in their pockets as profit.

Five Guys will soon completely dominate the Burger wars as far as top-shelf quality manly tasting burgers. A hearty beefy burger that satisfies a grown man – not a fussy child that doesn’t know what tastes good and would eat ketchup packets if he or she could. In-N-Out burger is also far superior in the taste and quality categories.

McDonald’s will soon implode itself. McDonald’s is the Microsoft of fast food joints. People only buy their products because many of the times they have no other choices. But this will soon change. McDonald’s will falter and fall just like Microsoft is now. Everyone with a brain inherently hates Microsoft because of their monopoly on their market – same goes for McDonald’s. Everyone that’s not a front-runner (aka Brainwashed little kids) hates McDonald’s and their crappy food.

I think the point here is that McDonalds is in the Business of making money and selling Hamburgers is leverage for its main business – real estate.
My local fast food joint has tastier hamburgers than McDonalds but funnily enough – I couldnt buy it in Franfurt Airport – Dublin Airport – Vancouver Airport – I could with McDonalds – get it!

Hey Kevin, thanks for the response. No doubt about it, a great deal of McDonald’s success is due to their real estate and convenience strategy. Ray Kroc certainly deserves a HUGE ton of respect and admiration for setting up, selling in and enforcing the McDonald’s system, but Harry Sonneborn really took the brand into a whole new stratosphere with his real estate financial machine and deserves a great deal more credit for the success of Big Mac that history has provided him.

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